MEN'S SOCCER: Pinnell returns to help Cougars

Edwardsville native Tom Pinnell, captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, conducts a leadership discussion with the SIUE men’s soccer team on April 10 at Korte Stadium.

Edwardsville native Tom Pinnell, captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, conducts a leadership discussion with the SIUE men’s soccer team on April 10 at Korte Stadium.

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Edwardsville native Tom Pinnell, captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, conducts a leadership discussion with the SIUE men’s soccer team on April 10 at Korte Stadium.

Edwardsville native Tom Pinnell, captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, conducts a leadership discussion with the SIUE men’s soccer team on April 10 at Korte Stadium.

MEN'S SOCCER: Pinnell returns to help Cougars

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EDWARDSVILLE – Tom Pinnell returned to his hometown to give the SIUE men’s soccer team a taste of Marine-style training.

Pinnell, an Edwardsville native and a captain in the U. S. Marine Corps, went to Korte Stadium on April 10 to do a 90-minute workout with the Cougars, with the soccer team performing a variety of tests and drills that are used by the Marines. Afterward, he did a 30-minute leadership discussion with the team.

“There are a lot of easy parallels between athletics and the Marine Corps, what is expected on both sides, how a unit operates and what is needed for a unit to be cohesive and effective,” Pinnell said. “We try to share some of those values and parallels with athletic teams in the area and give them a different perspective on leadership, working together and being an effective unit.”

A 2005 Edwardsville High School graduate, Pinnell played baseball and soccer for the Tigers. He went on to play baseball for four years at St. Louis University, where he also attended law school. He started practicing law in the Marine Corps in 2013 at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.

In July 2017, he was transferred to St. Louis, where he is in charge of officer selection for the St. Louis area. Since then, he and his staff have done several training sessions with different sports teams at local colleges including St. Louis University and Washington University.

The physical fitness test used at SIUE was one of two employed extensively by the Marines.

“There is one test that is three miles with crunches and pull-ups to test cardiovascular strength, but the one we did today is the combat fitness test,” Pinnell said. “It includes a movement to contact, which is an 800-meter sprint which includes an ammo can press with a 30-pound ammo can. You do as many presses as you can in two minutes.

“It also includes movement under fire, which simulates conditions requiring agility and strength and moving a casualty over your shoulder for a distance through an obstacle course. Each component out of the test is scored out of 100 and the Marines do that every year. It’s a big part of our combat readiness and our promotion scale and things like that.”

For the workout, the SIUE men’s soccer team was split into two groups that competed against one another.

“It’s great for the players to hear from other organizations and other people and leaders and see how they deal with interactions and how people work together towards a common goal,” SIUE assistant coach Jeremy Proud said.

“On the competitive side, you get to see how the players react to some different stimulus. Rather than just kicking balls around, it was good to see a little of what the Marines do to train.”

The tests force the athletes to work together and build teamwork in ways that they might not normally experience in typical practices or drills.

“One of the best ways to create cohesiveness in a unit is to push each other both physically and mentally,” Pinnell said. “We like to start a lot of these events with things like our combat fitness test to get them competing with one another and to see how they lead.

“We get them to push one another so they have a common shared suffering that they can enjoy. We observe them during those times of physical hardship and try to pull some leadership lessons out of that.”

Keegan McHugh, a redshirt junior defender for the Cougars, was one of the players who participated in the workout. He came away from the session not only impressed with the Marines, but with his teammates as well.

“It was definitely a new experience for all of us, carrying ammo crates, throwing grenades and crawling and stuff like that,” McHugh said. “It was physically challenging and everyone kind of struggled, but I think that you can relate that to soccer.

“For me, what stuck out the most was when we had the talk afterwards and leadership and not just one central person having all the power and reaping all the benefits. We were talking about how leaders eat last (in the Marines), so they put their self-interest last and do what is best as a team to benefit everyone.”

While the combat fitness test was both memorable and helpful for the Cougars, Pinnell’s discussion about leadership may have left an even deeper impression on the soccer team.

“We try to get them talking about what their strengths and weaknesses are from a leadership perspective,” Pinnell said. “I talk with them about how the Marine Corps views leadership. The Marines are thought of in both the military and the civilian world as some of the most effective leaders on the planet.

“I talk to them about the foundation of leadership and the responsibility that a Marine officer in particular has to lead his or her subordinates. We try to draw on as many of those principles as we can and relate them to how their team can be more effective.”